For 'Corteo,' Cirque sends in the clowns

If you head over to see the Cirque du Soleil's tent show "Corteo" outside the United Center this summer and detect a certain level of overconfidence among those clever French Canadians, forgive them.

Two weeks ago at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, the company coaxed Yoko Ono, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Cynthia Lennon into the same room. No small feat. Credit goes to a new Cirque show in that town -- "The Beatles: Love" -- a strange but hypnotic visual treatment of Beatles music that has turned out to be among the highest profile entertainment events of the year.

It's also further evidence that Cirque is slowly transforming itself from an arty, adult circus into a full-blown entertainment conglomerate willing to tailor any form of visual, spectacle-oriented theater to audiences with different needs and expectations. And it's no longer afraid of the spoken word.

"We never want," says the aptly named Dominic Champagne, the director of "Love," "merely to do more of the same."

That is, of course, Cirque's big issue.

If you're not thinking of seeing "Corteo" in the coming weeks (the official opening is Friday night), it's likely because you've either never experienced Cirque or because you feel like you've seen all they have to offer. So Cirque is on a full-blown campaign to make sure you know that "Corteo" is nothing whatsoever like, say, "Saltimbanco" or "Nouvelle Experience" or any of the other Cirque shows that have enlivened Chicago summers for more than a decade.

"We wanted to put humans on stage this time," says Alison Crawford, the artistic director of "Corteo." The usual hip Cirque masked critters have been banished this time around.

"Corteo" does not have a traditional plot -- but it does have quite a precise theme. "Corteo" is the Italian word for funeral processions. And this show centers on events that take place after the death of a clown. In other words, the whole show is the circus world's homage to a dead funnyman. And by Cirque standards, that's an unusually explicit narrative.

"It's like a classic old circus story," Crawford says. "We don't have a bearded lady, but we do have a giant."

No entertainment company gives more power to individual directors and is more paranoid about the dangers of repetition. "Corteo," which just finished a successful and well-reviewed New York engagement, is the work of a former clown named Daniele Finzi Pasca. Clowning typically has been an afterthought in Cirque's Vegas shows -- in "Love" clowns disappear almost entirely. But here, the funnymen -- and their tears -- are front and center.

That said, Crawford says that Cirque also tried with "Corteo" to offer a more pensive, whimsical and above all cerebral show -- something more focused on ideas than the typical visual extravaganzas of the past.

The performing area inside the usual tent has the audience arranged on two sides--so the setup is very much a theater. That clearly caused some tough issues with the technical set-up -- the lack of a traditional circus backstage made it much harder to rig the show. But it also helps ensure that Cirque regulars in Chicago don't feel like they are being sold more of the same.

"This is a much more theatrical concept," Crawford says. "We have huge curtains that open and close."

And if the circus (albeit a theatricalized circus) is still in town here in Chicago, in Vegas Cirque is doing something quite different. In "Love," for example, you can still see remnants of the troupe's famous circus roots -- Cirque established its reputation by unifying the hitherto episodic entertainment form of circus and making it far more palatable for urban adults. But it's almost an afterthought. "Love," which interprets lyrics and biography, is far closer to "Movin' Out" than Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. The principal language is that of dance, theater and multimillion-dollar spectacle.

In Vegas, Cirque has five permanent shows ("O," "Mystere," "Ka," "Zumanity" and "Love") and virtually owns the town. Every time it opens a new show, the pressures ratchet up another notch. And in order to survive, Cirque has to differentiate its products -- which inevitably compete with each other. A Cirque magic show reportedly will be next -- and there's also talk of a future Cirque Vegas show themed around Elvis. In four or five years, you'll be able to go to Vegas for an entire week (god help you and your pocketbook) and see a different Cirque show every night of the week.

On the road, Cirque can do something a little different.

In fact, it's smart enough to realize that it has to do something a little different, lest it give people no reason to go and see its $150 Vegas spectaculars. And without vacationing Chicago audiences, its Vegas spectaculars would be in trouble.

Thus "Corteo," which has been touring North America for about a year now, is both a part of the nouveau Cirque, but also a more retro affair that pays homage to the Cirque's roots in classic European circus. Why compete in a tent with $100 million Vegas spectacles? Better to do something completely different. At a slightly lower price.

Already, Cirque is at work on its next tent show--which is slated to come to Chicago in the summer of 2008. It will be directed by David Shiner, a clown, but one who has worked on Broadway, which is one more realm for Cirque still to conquer.